Bedtime struggle

Hey, I have a 4month old (he was 6weeks premature). Over the last month I've tried to stick to the same bedtime routine. My son seems to love a routine, feeds the same time every day, naps the same time every day so I thought he would work well with a nighttime routine quite quickly. Also worth mentioning he only naps for half hr at a time unless I hold him or he is in the pram.
I take him up about half 6, change him into his PJ's, have a sing song then have some milk and a cuddle then put him down. He always fights me at the cuddle stage and cries alot but within 2mins he is fast asleep.
He will then sleep for half hr to an hr but after that it's a process of me constantly running upstairs to put his dummy back in or even having to get him out and rock him back to sleep if he wakes crying. This goes on until half 8 and then he is normal out for the count and sleeps until morning.

I don't know if I should carry on with the routine and hope that one day he stops fighting me and goes down properly or if I should change it?
He's not good a self settling but I'm wondering if I should just put him down awake rather then rocking him to sleep or if maybe I'm putting him to bed to early and that's why he is fighting me?

Comments (11)

I would temporarily move your routine back to 8.30pm being final put down to match his natural routine. Then just slowly over the next few weeks inch it forwards 15mins/30mins until he naturally settles earlier. x

My lb is shattered and has a bath at 6, story, pjs and feed in a dark room then bed. He sleeps 40 minutes which is his normal daytime sleep length then wakes but is sleepy and just has the other boob then goes down to sleep for the night. But he has been waking more frequently in the night with this sleep regression 🤔

My daughter was the same and woke initially after 40 minutes for another feed then straight back off. Have you tried feeding again when they wake?x

I would temporarily move your routine back to 8.30pm being final put down to ...

Posted
16/02/2018

I would temporarily move your routine back to 8.30pm being final put down to match his natural routine. Then just slowly over the next few weeks inch it forwards 15mins/30mins until he naturally settles earlier. x

Thank you for your advice, you just read so much that says he should be sleeping 7-7 but I've been trying this for at least a month and every time he cries which isnt a nice way for him to go to sleep so I'll try this and hopefully he will be happier with that

My lb is shattered and has a bath at 6, story, pjs and feed in a dark room th...

Posted
16/02/2018

My lb is shattered and has a bath at 6, story, pjs and feed in a dark room then bed. He sleeps 40 minutes which is his normal daytime sleep length then wakes but is sleepy and just has the other boob then goes down to sleep for the night. But he has been waking more frequently in the night with this sleep regression 🤔
My daughter was the same and woke initially after 40 minutes for another feed then straight back off. Have you tried feeding again when they wake?x

With the exception that we give our LO (little one) a bath half an hour later, this is EXACTLY us, right down to the forty minutes daytime naps. While she sleeps for those first forty I start the dinner then go up and give her a final feed and then sit down to dinner. She usually sleeps to 2am now before feeding although now stretching to 3am sometimes. She is bf. it is pretty nice to have my evenings back.

Thereafter though, much more frequent wake ups. Maybe sleep regression or could be wind. Not sure yet! I can handle that though if we’ve both got a decent chunk of sleep earlier.

With the exception that we give our LO a bath half an hour later, this is E...

Last edited
16/02/2018

With the exception that we give our LO a bath half an hour later, this is EXACTLY us, right down to the forty minutes daytime naps. While she sleeps for those first forty I start the dinner then go up and give her a final feed and then sit down to dinner. She usually sleeps to 2am now before feeding although now stretching to 3am sometimes. She is bf. it is pretty nice to have my evenings back.

Thereafter though, much more frequent wake ups. Maybe sleep regression or could be wind. Not sure yet! I can handle that though if we’ve both got a decent chunk of sleep earlier.

I've not tried this, I do normally give him a top up but not until 9ish so I will definitely try this as well. Fingers crossed he will be abit happier which this. Thanks again

Hi, my son is 16 weeks and we had a similar issue so now, he goes down for a nap at about half 5 / 6 for about an hour and then at half 7 we put his pjs on, give him his bottle and he’s in bed by 8.30pm at the latest and sleeps until 7am. Same as your routine, just that little bit later when he’s ready to go to bed. I’m hoping that once we’re weaning then I can move bedtime forward but for now, it’s working and we get some of our evening to ourselves. x

With the exception that we give our LO a bath half an hour later, this is E...

Last edited
16/02/2018

With the exception that we give our LO a bath half an hour later, this is EXACTLY us, right down to the forty minutes daytime naps. While she sleeps for those first forty I start the dinner then go up and give her a final feed and then sit down to dinner. She usually sleeps to 2am now before feeding although now stretching to 3am sometimes. She is bf. it is pretty nice to have my evenings back.

Thereafter though, much more frequent wake ups. Maybe sleep regression or could be wind. Not sure yet! I can handle that though if we’ve both got a decent chunk of sleep earlier.

How funny eh? Our lb was sleeping until 1/2/3am but now he’s waking at 11:30/12 and then every two hours after. Hoping it’s the sleep regression 🤞🏻

We found this to start it was just to early for her she’ll have her power nap between 5.30&6.30 for 30 mins then I go upstairs at 7.30 bath her,bit off massage, story and bottle and she’s in bed at 8(normally falls asleep feeding) then wakes at 1&5 for bottle and gets up about 7-7.30 isn’t he day she only naps 30-40 mins at a time whenever she likes. X

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